Winemaker Notes
This wine is characterized by its signature minerality and vibrant acidity, accented by flavors of kiwi, citrus zest, green apple and depth across the palate. Every moment with this heavenly chardonnay is to be savored.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Another brilliant wine, the 2019 Chardonnay Gap's Crown Vineyard boasts a lively gold hue as well as a great nose of mineral-laced stone fruits, crushed citrus, and white flowers. With lots of acidity on the palate balanced by solid depth of fruit, this fresh, focused, beautifully balanced Sonoma Coast Chardonnay will keep for 4-5 years, probably longer.
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Wine Spectator
This intense white is filled with minerally and savory richness to its gooseberry, Fuji apple and green peach flavors, backed by crunchy acidity. Lusciously spiced, with a finish that lingers with ripe melon and dried tarragon accents. Best from 2022 through 2027.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2019 Three Sticks Gap's Crown Chardonnay offers excellent presence and persistence on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits heady aromas and flavors of racy green apple and mineral notes, as well as an accent of oak. Enjoy it with grilled, panko-breaded halibut. (Tasted: March 22, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Already showing a good deal of richness and layered complexity in spite of its obvious youth, this medium-fullbodied, very well-balanced offering has the depth and fruity reserve to age handsomely even though it is immensely appealing right now. We see good reasons, starting with its structured solidity, to hide it away for another three or four years, yet we are just as impressed with how expressive and involving it is at the moment, and, truth be told, we would happily make a place for it at the table tonight with any dish that calls for a rich, fullflavored Chardonnay.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Chardonnay Gap's Crown Vineyard offers slowly opening aromas of salted almonds, beeswax, baked apples and white flowers. The palate is medium-bodied, toasty and approachable with soft, perfumed fruits and a yeasty finish.
Three Sticks Wines is a boutique, family-owned winery recognized for pinot noir and chardonnay. Proprietor Bill Price III (nicknamed “Billy Three Sticks”) owns six Grand Cru level estate vineyards in Sonoma County, including three Heritage vineyards–Durell, Gap’s Crown, and Walala and three Monopole vineyards–One Sky, Alana, and William James. An intimate relationship with each property shines through in each of the Three Sticks wines, reflecting a keen understanding of how working with great vineyards, along with a meticulous winemaking style, produces inspiring results.
The Vallejo-Castenada Adobe (built in 1842) was built by Captain Salvador Vallejo, brother of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the Commandante Generale of the northern territory of Mexico (modern day Sonoma). The Prices purchased the property in 2012 and embarked on a two-year preservation project. The Three Sticks team worked with Sonoma historians and the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation to restore and protect the fabric of the property. They commissioned San Francisco-based designer Ken Fulk and his team to design the ambience of the Adobe, as it is known locally. The historic landmark in downtown Sonoma is now home to the hospitality of Three Sticks.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.